Managing Freight Orders and Freight Bookings

In SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, freight orders are managed in the Manage Freight Orders app. As a transportation manager, you might need to keep track of freight orders on a daily basis and be aware of any issues such as execution backlogs and delays. The app contains all the information that you need to keep you up-to-date with transportation orders (freight orders) and to identify any potential problems. Using this app, you can create deliveries and perform charge calculations for a selected freight order.

You can do the following with the Manage Freight Orders app:

• Create, edit, copy, view and cancel freight orders.
• Monitor freight orders
• Search, filter, sort, and group the list of freight orders by relevant criteria such as execution status, planned departure, ship-to party, freight agreement, and carrier
• Assign or unassign existing freight units
• Insert or remove railcar items or containers
• Perform subcontracting and communicate the freight order details to the carrier
• View transportation charge details and manually calculate charges
• Create deliveries for selected freight orders by pressing the Create Deliveries link above the list

• Print CMR Waybills (Europe) and ADR Dangerous Goods (DG) Notes (Europe) for road freight orders.

• Create note texts and include attachments

Selecting a freight order in the list view takes you to a more detailed view. The General Data tab displays the most important information, like the responsible purchasing organization and group as well as the carrier to whom the freight order is subcontracted. Additional tabs grouped under Business Partner, Statuses, Charges, Subcontracting, Execution etc. provide more detailed information. The detailed information enables you to take swift action to remedy any possible issues. For example, if you notice on the header that there has not been the expected progress in creating deliveries, you can view further details of the order underneath. If you see a problem, you can investigate it by opening the relevant tabs and take appropriate action.

In a road freight order, you can review and edit the following information.

1. General Data displays information about the source and destination locations, including the planned departure and arrival dates/times, as well as cargo, organizational, and order date information for the entire freight order.
2. On the Business Partner tab you can enter the business partners that are involved in the transportation, such as the carrier. The shipper is automatically determined by the system according to the procuring company code, but can be manually overwritten.
3. In the Organizational Information section, the procuring company code is displayed to which the purchasing organization of the freight order is assigned. It is used in the settlement process to determine to which company code the accruals for freight costs are booked in financial accounting.
4. In the Charges tab, you can see the transportation charges based on the relevant freight agreement between you, the purchasing organization, and the carrier.
5. On the Subcontracting tab, you can find the order date, which represents the date and time when the freight order was created or communicated to the carrier. This date has been either transferred from an external planning system (in the case of an external freight order) or you can enter it manually. It is then considered by the system during charge calculation and determination of the freight agreement.
6. Under Stages, you can view information such as source and destination locations, planned departure and arrival dates/times, utilization percentage, and sequence for the individual transportation stages of the freight order.

   On the Stages tab you also report events for loading, arrival, departure for each of the involved locations (source and destination).

7. On the Execution tab you can see the events that have been triggered by setting the execution and handling execution statuses.
8. The Output Request tab shows the CMR Waybills (Europe) and ADR Dangerous Goods Notes (Europe) that have been created automatically when you saved the road freight order. You can display a preview of the print document and you can trigger the printing by choosing Send Output.

   Note: The ADR DG Note is created automatically if the road freight order contains dangerous goods.

9. Further information is displayed on Statuses, Blocking Information, Document Flow, Notes and Attachments tabs.

While above description primarily focuses on road transportation, there are some mode-specific deviations. For rail freight orders the General Data tab includes the number and types of railcars that have been subcontracted as well as if there are multiple executing parties involved in the execution of the rail freight order. On the Items tab you can insert, copy, or delete railcars and enter equipment groups and equipment types. For charge calculation, you can specify whether the railcar is owned by the shipper. The Stages tab allows you to specify an invoicing carrier and an executing carrier for each stage. For the rule 11 scenario that is applicable in North America, you can assign different carriers for the stages. In this case, one carrier accepts the actual order but the invoices for the individual stages are submitted by all of the carriers involved.

For sea and air freight, similar information is maintained for the ocean / air freight booking in the Manage Ocean / Air Freight Bookings app.

The Manage Ocean/Air Freight Bookings apps offer similar information and functionality for ocean/air freight bookings like the Manage Freight Orders app does for road and rail transportation. In addition to the planning tasks, this app allows you to:

• Create, view, edit and cancel freight bookings

• Search, filter, sort, and group freight bookings based on criteria such as, carrier, port of loading, and port of discharge

• Create deliveries for freight bookings

• Perform subcontracting and communicate the freight booking details to the carrier. You also receive confirmation from the carrier

• Enter invoicing carriers and an executing carrier for stages

• View transportation charge details and manually calculate charges from the list view and the detailed view

• You can set statuses, such as the execution status, for the entire document the (on header level), as well as for individual stages and locations (in the Stages section)

• Print CMR waybills (Europe), bill of lading (USA and Canada), and master bill of lading (international) for freight orders for pick-up or delivery. Print IMO dangerous goods declaration for ocean bookings

• Create note texts and include attachments

In an ocean freight booking, you can review and edit the following information.

1. General Data displays information about the source and destination locations, including the planned departure and arrival dates/times, as well as cargo, organizational, and order date information for the entire freight booking. You can enter the vessel and voyage name and other information, such as the port of loading and port of discharge, the pick-up and delivery locations, and the departure and arrival dates of the vessel. You can select the shipping type LCL (Less Than Container Load) or FCL (Full Container Load) and the movement type, for example, Door to Door or Door to Port, to specify which stages are subcontracted to the logistics service provider. Moreover, you can see the number and types of containers.

2. The Items tab represents the content that is transported with the ocean freight booking. It includes item information such as the products to be transported, number of pieces, equipment type and equipment group, and the loading and unloading locations. If Incoterms are used, you can see the details for the assigned freight unit, such as the Incoterm locations and Incoterm versions. On the Notes tab for a product, you can display the texts that are propagated from underlying base processes, (e.g. from Sales and Distribution (SD), Material Management (MM), and Delivery Management (LE-SHP)) and on the Commodity Codes and Serial Numbers tabs for a product, you can view the commodity code and serial number assigned to a product.

   You can insert container items in an ocean freight booking and you can assign freight units to ocean freight bookings based on the freight unit ID or the ID of the base document, such as a sales order or a delivery. Likewise, you also unassign freight units from ocean freight bookings.

   If your shipping type is FCL, you can create freight orders for pick-up and delivery on the container level. If you have several containers that cannot be transported, for example, in one truck, you can create and assign several freight orders to the ocean freight booking. In an LCL scenario, you can create the freight orders on the freight unit level or on the level of the highest product in a freight unit. The freight order type must match the transportation mode mentioned in the Stages tab. You can enter seal information for a container in the ocean freight booking. Seals are placed on containers when they are picked up by the carrier, to ensure that they are not tampered with or opened during transportation. If you have created a freight order for pick-up and freight order for delivery for the ocean freight booking, you enter the seal information there. Irrespective of which business document you entered the seal information in, it is also sent to the related documents. You provide details such as seal numbers, sealing date and time, and the time zone, which is automatically taken from the source location of the container. You then communicate the seal information to your carrier from the ocean freight booking, via shipping notifications.

   Furthermore, you can enter the verified gross mass for each container on the Items tab.

3. On the Business Partner tab you can enter the business partners that are involved in the transportation, such as the carrier. The shipper is automatically determined by the system according to the procuring company code, but can be manually overwritten.
4. In the Charges tab, you can see the transportation charges based on the relevant freight agreement between you, the purchasing organization, and the carrier.
5. On the Subcontracting tab, you can find the order date, which represents the date and time when the freight order was created or communicated to the carrier. This date is considered by the system during charge calculation and determination of the freight agreement.
6. Under Stages, you can view information such as source and destination locations, planned departure and arrival dates/times, utilization percentage, and sequence for the individual transportation stages of the freight booking.
7. On the Execution tab you can see the events that have been triggered by setting the execution and handling execution statuses.
8. The Output Request tab shows print documents, for example, the CMR waybill (Europe), US bill of lading, Canada bill of lading, and Master bill of lading (international) that were created automatically when you saved the ocean freight booking in the freight orders for pick-up or delivery. The ADR dangerous goods note (for road freight orders), the RID dangerous goods note (for rail freight orders), and the IMO dangerous goods declaration (for ocean freight bookings) are also automatically created by the system if the freight order has dangerous goods. All these print documents are automatically sent to, for example, a printer or carrier when the Checkout event is reported. You can also select a print document and trigger printing by choosing Send Output and you can display a preview of the print document.
9. Further information is displayed on Statuses, Blocking Information, Document Flow, Notes, Communication History, Document References, Document Errors and Attachments tabs.

While above description primarily focuses on ocean transportation, there are some mode-specific deviations. For air freight bookings the General Data tab includes information such as the airport of departure and airport of destination, the departure and arrival dates, and the pick-up and delivery locations. You can see the shipping type and whether multiple executing parties are involved in the execution of the air freight booking. You can display international address versions in a dialog box. The international address version is a version of the location address entered in a different character set, for example, Kanji characters or Latin letters.

Compliance with dangerous goods regulations is an important component of product compliance to ensure safe transportation of dangerous goods. To support your compliance with dangerous goods regulations, dangerous goods data is integrated into checks that are carried out in the processing of freight units, freight orders, and freight bookings. If a product has been marked as relevant for compliance in the product master, the system checks dangerous goods data as the transportation document is created or edited. If an item in the document has been classified as a dangerous good, the system also checks if all necessary dangerous goods data is available, and whether transportation of the product is allowed, forbidden, or restricted. Depending on the outcome of this check, the system issues warnings, or blocks the document. No TM specific configuration is required for this.

A consignment order represents a business document that groups several transportation requirements that have the same source and destination locations. Consignment orders are created locally in a freight order, after the freight units have been assigned. Local consignment orders are marked with the qualifier local in the item hierarchy. In multi-modal scenarios the consignment order is build at the first freight document (freight order, freight order for pick-up).

In the outbound process, the system sends an advanced shipping notification via EDI based on the consignment order. To be able to send out advanced shipping notifications, you must set up the communication scenario SAP_COM_0850 (Transportation Management – Advanced Shipping Notification Integration). The consignment order document is created after you set the execution status of the freight order to Ready for Transportation Execution. After the goods are packed at the warehouse and goods issue is posted for the delivery, the goods movement status in the consignment order document is set to Completely Processed. This is the trigger to automatically create an advanced shipping notification and send it to the ship-to party. The advanced shipping notification can be checked on the Output Request and Communication History tabs.